Executive Summary
For perpetual licensing, SAP support and maintenance costs are typically priced at approximately 18–22% of the annual net software licence value. These fees cover standard support services, access to SAP Notes, Security Notes, and vendor assistance.
Your support costs with SAP can increase each year regardless of how many support tickets you raise. Organisations thinking outside of traditional SAP support models are finding that moving to third-party support can actually reduce support costs by 50% or more while improving the quality and flexibility of service provided.
For example, this large retailer saved millions on SAP S/4HANA support costs.
Key Takeaways
- SAP support and maintenance fees are calculated as a percentage of your initial software licence investment. Costs increase every year, regardless of how many support tickets you raise with SAP
- SAP support and maintenance fees for on-premise software are typically calculated as a percentage of the software’s maintenance base, rather than according to how much support you actually use. This means you pay an annual fee regardless of how many support issues you raise, and fees may increase over time in line with your contractual terms
- Organisations with mature, stable SAP environments frequently receive limited value from standard maintenance agreements
- Third-party support can significantly reduce costs while providing personalised, enterprise-grade support. Savings from lower SAP support and maintenance costs can be redirected towards innovation, digital transformation, and strategic initiatives
- Continuing to pay SAP maintenance on legacy systems can mean funding the very cloud transition you may later have to buy again, making it essential to challenge the value of every renewal
Understanding SAP Maintenance Costs
For many organisations, SAP represents one of the largest investments in their technology estate. While considerable attention is often given to software licensing and implementation costs, ongoing maintenance fees can become one of the most significant long-term expenses associated with running SAP.
Understanding SAP support and maintenance costs is essential for organisations seeking to optimise their IT budgets, improve operational flexibility, and make more informed decisions about their future SAP strategy.
What are SAP maintenance costs?
SAP maintenance costs are the annual fees organisations pay to receive ongoing support and maintenance services from SAP. These services typically include:
- Access to software updates and enhancements
- SAP Notes for security bug fixes
- Technical support and issue resolution
- Knowledge base resources and documentation
- Tax, Legal and regulatory updates
Traditionally, SAP customers pay an annual support and maintenance fee equivalent to approximately 18–22% of their original software licence costs.
For organisations that have been running SAP for many years, these recurring fees can amount to millions over the lifetime of the software.
Why are SAP support and maintenance costs so high?
SAP support and maintenance fees are designed to provide customers with continuous access to vendor resources and software improvements. However, the cost structure is often based on the value of the original licence rather than the level of support an organisation uses.
For mature SAP environments that are stable and generate relatively few vendor support tickets, the cost of annual support and maintenance fees may not make financial sense.
This creates a disconnect between the price paid and the value an organisation receives.
The hidden costs of SAP maintenance
The annual support invoice is only one part of the total cost of maintaining SAP.
Many organisations also face indirect costs, including:
Forced Cloud Migrations
SAP’s product strategy encourages customers to adopt newer cloud-based releases such as SAP S/4HANA, particularly as mainstream support and maintenance for older ERP versions reaches published end-of-support dates in 2027.
New software installations or migrations involve purchasing new software subscriptions, significant project costs, internal resource requirements, business disruption, additional consultancy fees, and increased implementation risk.
Reduced flexibility
Vendor support agreements can limit an organisation’s ability to determine its own technology roadmap. Rather than aligning technology decisions with business priorities, SAP clients may find themselves making migration and modernisation decisions based on vendor support timelines and end-of-support milestones.
Opportunity cost
Money spent on unnecessary support and maintenance could be spent on wider innovation or strategic initiatives instead.
Organisations are increasingly seeking ways to redirect SAP expenditure towards initiatives that benefit their organisation, like AI or cloud modernisation projects.
Are you getting value from your SAP support?
On a routine basis, every organisation should spend time reviewing their SAP support and maintenance spend to determine if the investment aligns with their business needs.
Ask the following questions:
- How many support tickets have you raised in the last 12 months?
- How often do you implement new software updates?
- Could you reduce support costs without increasing risk to your stable systems?
For many businesses, the answers reveal that they are paying for services they no longer need. If you’re curious about your own SAP costs, calculate your potential savings in just a few minutes.
Why “doing nothing” with SAP can still be expensive
Often, SAP ECC environments are heavily customised, and no longer changing significantly. Yet as standard vendor support evolves, organisations are increasingly relying on larger Application Management Services (AMS) teams and specialist expertise to maintain, troubleshoot, and support these customised environments. The result is that even stable SAP systems can become more expensive to operate over time.
More often than not, mature and stable SAP ECC environments rarely rely on SAP for day-to-day operational support. Instead, vendor support is often used primarily to access security updates and tax, legal and regulatory (TLR) updates, prompting many organisations to question whether the cost of full vendor support still reflects the value they receive.
These environments still require specialist technical expertise, particularly to maintain customised SAP landscapes. As organisations increasingly rely on AMS providers for operational support, many are reassessing the value of vendor maintenance agreements that now primarily provide security services and tax, legal, and regulatory (TLR) updates.
SAP support and maintenance in the S/4HANA Era
Organisations running SAP ECC face several strategic options:
- Migrate to S/4HANA under SAP support
- Adopt RISE with SAP
- Remain on ECC with third-party support while planning future modernisation
- Selectively migrate workloads over time
The right approach depends on business objectives, regulatory requirements, budget, and the organisation’s long-term ERP strategy.
An alternative approach to SAP maintenance
Increasingly, organisations are re-evaluating their support strategies and considering third-party support.
Third-party support providers deliver support and maintenance services for SAP environments independently of the software vendor. Organisations should also consider the trade-offs, including how this approach aligns with longer-term ERP plans, such as a future migration to SAP S/4HANA, while ensuring continued access to the updates required to maintain compliance and security.
This model often best suited to organisations that:
- Have no clear plan for their SAP environment beyond 2030
- Cannot afford to move to SAP S/4HANA
- Cannot move to SaaS because they are restricted from using cloud environments
- Cannot go unsupported beyond 2030 because they need tax, legal, regulatory, or security updates
- Need to reduce support and maintenance costs
- Want to use third-party support while transitioning to SAP S/4HANA
- Are over-licensed for software they no longer use
If right for your organisation, the third-party model typically provides:
Extended system lifecycles
Businesses can continue running stable SAP systems for as long as they deliver value, past SAP’s 2027/2030 deadlines.
Greater flexibility
Organisations regain control of their technology roadmap and can modernise at a pace that suits their business objectives.
More personalised support
Unlike traditional support models that often rely on ticket escalation processes, our third-party support model provides a dedicated Primary Support engineer backed by an experienced team who understands complex, highly-customised SAP environments. This approach enables faster issue resolution and greater continuity than models that rely solely on specialist escalation.
Significant cost savings
Organisations can often reduce SAP support costs 50% or more, with the most efficient support strategies, freeing substantial budget for innovation and strategic initiatives.
How to Assess Your SAP Maintenance Costs
A comprehensive review of your SAP support strategy should include the following steps.
1. Review current support and maintenance spend
Calculate your annual maintenance costs and evaluate how they have changed over time.
2. Assess support usage
Determine how frequently you use support services.
3. Understand future requirements
Consider your organisation’s long-term ERP strategy, including whether and when you plan to migrate to SAP S/4HANA. This will help ensure your support model aligns with both your current operational needs and future transformation plans.
4. Evaluate alternative models
Compare your current costs with alternative support options and assess the potential savings and benefits.
5. Plan to reinvest savings strategically
Develop a plan for how reduced support and maintenance costs could fund broader business priorities.
The Future of SAP Maintenance
The ERP landscape is changing rapidly.
Organisations are facing increasing pressure to modernise, adopt AI, improve operational efficiency, and deliver greater business value from their technology investments, all with a limited budget.
As a result, many organisations are challenging long-held assumptions about software support by asking a simple question:
Do we actually get value from the maintenance we’re paying for?
For businesses running stable SAP environments, the answer is often no.
Understanding SAP maintenance costs is a strategic opportunity to revolutionise where your IT budget is being spent and whether those investments are delivering genuine value.
By taking a closer look at support and maintenance expenditure and exploring alternative support models, organisations can reduce unnecessary costs, gain greater flexibility, and create additional budget to invest in the initiatives that will drive future growth.
Looking to understand how much your organisation can save on SAP maintenance costs? Try our free cost savings calculator today.
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